• elleplaster@sopuli.xyz
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    8 days ago

    He was a eugenicist.

    https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/nikola-tesla-the-eugenicist-eliminating-undesirables-by-2100-130299355/

    “The year 2100 will see eugenics universally established. In past ages, the law governing the survival of the fittest roughly weeded out the less desirable strains. Then man’s new sense of pity began to interfere with the ruthless workings of nature. As a result, we continue to keep alive and to breed the unfit. The only method compatible with our notions of civilization and the race is to prevent the breeding of the unfit by sterilization and the deliberate guidance of the mating instinct. Several European countries and a number of states of the American Union sterilize the criminal and the insane. This is not sufficient. The trend of opinion among eugenists is that we must make marriage more difficult. Certainly no one who is not a desirable parent should be permitted to produce progeny. A century from now it will no more occur to a normal person to mate with a person eugenically unfit than to marry a habitual criminal.”

    • Belgdore@lemm.ee
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      8 days ago

      Tesla is a great example of how genius is not a generalizable thing. He is the reason most of us have electricity, but he was a mess when it come to understanding people.

    • HappySkullsplitter@lemmy.worldOP
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      8 days ago

      Tesla was born in 1856

      From what I have read of Tesla, he seems like the kind of person that would change their opinion when presented with evidence

    • psycho_driver@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      Ahh man, if only they had been sterilizing the right criminals back then. Today’s political landscape would probably look a lot different.

      • KeenFlame@feddit.nu
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        8 days ago

        Is that a perfect trap to catch nazis? Just wave vaguely the idea of eugenics in front of them and see if they latch on?